(In)justice is Slow in Croatia, but Not the Slowest

Does only the Croatian judiciary face problems that other EU member states do not? Not at all, we would say, as many of them, even those we know have a stronger rule of law than ours, face issues with the slowness of judicial proceedings. This is evidenced by the comparative results of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), which are, admittedly, quite varied, making them difficult to generalize.

In collecting data, we were assisted by Neven Mates from the Center for Democracy and Law ‘Miko Tripalo’, as well as Professor Alan Uzelac from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, but both pointed out that the reported results are deficient because data is missing in some places, the methodology for obtaining data sometimes differs, and in some cases, there is no data on certain types of disputes. Nevertheless, a general picture can be drawn, indicating that other EU member states also have problems with their judiciary.

According to this data, the estimated time required to resolve civil, commercial, administrative, and other cases in the first instance in 2012 and from 2019 to 2021 for Croatia is not bad at all. For example, in 2012, it took 133 days to resolve cases in our country, while in France it took 275 days, and in Italy, even 391 days. We are somewhat envious of Denmark, where cases are resolved in 17 days, but also of Estonia and Lithuania, where all first-instance disputes are resolved in 44 days. It is surprising that the estimated duration of first-instance proceedings in Bulgaria was 74 days, and among the extremely slow judiciaries that year were Cyprus (534), Greece (677), Malta (707), and Portugal (860).

Croatia was in the golden mean, as they say, alongside Finland (101 days), Slovenia (113 days), the Czech Republic (116 days), and Romania (161 days). Judging by the data from 2019 to 2021, it remained there. In Croatia, this time fell to 130 days in 2019, and in the following two years – of the pandemic and earthquakes – it shortened even further: it took 120 days to resolve disputes, which is somewhat unexpected given the working and technical difficulties in those two years.

However, the data from the Ministry of Justice and Administration, albeit the most recent, i.e., from the beginning of this year to the end of September, is somewhat different, as cases at all first-instance courts are resolved in 159 days, at second-instance courts in 196 days, and the Supreme Court takes 235 days. On average, resolving disputes at all courts takes 163 days. Regardless of the difference in these data, we are still in the golden mean, noting that CEPEJ presented estimates of the duration of court proceedings that are, at least for us, slightly more optimistic than we might have assumed.

Disastrous Third Instance

However, this is some kind of average of all court proceedings. We fare much worse when it comes to resolving civil and commercial cases in the first instance. In 2012, it took us 457 days to resolve these cases, and only Greece (469), Italy (590), and Malta (685) fared worse than us, although the Portuguese cannot boast of speed either (369), nor can the Finns (325), Slovenians (318), and French (311). This number in Croatia grew from 2019 to 2021 (559), and interestingly, in Portugal, it fell to 253, almost to the level of Germany (231). In Italy, it increased due to restrictive measures during COVID, but in 2021, the number began to fall again to 560 days.

The situation for Croatia is much better when we talk about first-instance administrative cases conducted in non-judicial institutions, where the procedures have been significantly shortened. In 2012, an administrative dispute lasted 523 days, and we were in the company of Slovaks (733) and Italians (886). There are no data for Portugal from that year, but we assume that the procedures there also dragged on, given that the average from 2019 to 2021 was 800 days. The best in this regard were the Estonians (108) and Poles (112); the Dutch were not bad (165), while the French were average (302).

However, from 2019 to 2021, the situation in first-instance administrative disputes in Croatia improved. For example, they were more than halved, resolving in 187 days in 2019, 179 days the following year, and in 2021, administrative courts took 166 days. Interestingly, the number of days for the procedure increased during this time in the Netherlands, which we could swear is better than Croatia. In that country, in 2019, administrative judges took 215 days, the following year they were even slower (304), and in 2021, they fell to 265 days.

We assume that the pandemic also affected the slowdown in resolving cases there. When it comes to administrative disputes, no country in the Benelux can boast of results, as it took the Belgians 2019 418 days to resolve an administrative dispute (there are no data for 2012), but in the following two years, the duration of the procedure was halved. Luxembourg is also interesting, a wealthy country perceived as one where the rule of law resides. In 2020 and 2021, first-instance administrative proceedings there lasted over 500 days.

We can say something similar when we look at second-instance administrative disputes, but the data for Croatia is disappointing when we talk about third-instance resolution of administrative disputes in the courts. For the administrative court to resolve it, it took a record 1895 days in 2021, making us the worst in the European Union in this regard. Greece (1324) and Slovakia (828) fared slightly better, although Belgium (501) and the Netherlands (414) also cannot boast. Hungarian administrative courts are the fastest, taking 55 days; followed by the Swedes with 99 days.

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